CCAWS! Your Local Care and Wellbeing Service

Updated: Nov 27, 2019

Who are we?

CCAWS is a mental health charity based in Cardiff. Our team consists of mental health professionals and trained volunteers who provide advocacy, befriending and counselling services to Cardiff’s local community. We also specialise in helping Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) and Muslim communities by uniquely offering faith-sensitive care to help provide excellent quality services to our local community.

Who we help

We give support to anyone and everyone in the local community over the age of 18. Our volunteers can speak multiple languages allowing us to support Cardiff’s diverse population, and making it as easy as possible for people to reach out to us for support without fearing a language barrier.

What we have achieved so far

Since CCAWS was founded in 2018, we have been making an impact on the mental health sector of the local community.

In 2019 we have been able to:

Recruit over 30 volunteers and provide them with professional training.

Deal with 80% of the 400 referrals we have received.

Increase people receiving counselling and befriending services since 2018, even though demand for these services has also risen.

Serve more service users, and reduce the time spent on the waiting list.

The funding we have received has allowed us to expand our services and offer help more efficiently to those in need. In the past three months, we have been able to double our number of volunteers, deal with advocacy issues on the spot, and have helped so many of the people that have come to us in their time of need.

Here is just some of the amazing feedback that we have had from our service users:

‘My well-being has improved since my first counselling session’

‘I was able to see someone when I really needed help’

What’s the plan for the future?

We are hoping to increase the funding that we receive, so that we can start working on:

Expanding our range of support groups and services to deal with more specific issues. This will allow our service users to communicate with others facing similar issues, and allow the facilitators of our support groups to focus on providing the best help and advice possible on one topic.

Creating a new digital framework, so we are able to take donations online and be able to take referrals online.

Creating a newsletter to be distributed with the latest information from CCAWS and the community.

Creating a CV and Budgeting Workshop, to help those unemployed and need of financial advice.

At CCAWS, we give everyone an input on the services that are being provided. From the people deciding what services would work best for them, to our team advising and using their experience to give the most valuable assistance to our clients.

However, none of this would be possible without the kind donations we have had. But, we still have far to go and every little helps toward fulfilling our dream of helping people to learn and develop mental, emotional, social and spiritual strength for life. Visit our website to find out how to donate to our cause.